Mohammad Ruman Shana came from behind to clinch gold medal in the men’s Recurve event of the 1st Asian Archery Grand Prix in Bangkok as Bangladesh enjoyed their most successful international archery outing in recent years yesterday.
This is the biggest success for Bangladesh in four years since Imdadul Haque Milon won gold in the same event of youth Asian qualifiers.
Shana beat men’s Olympic silver medallist Takahara Furukawa of Japan in the quarters and showed perseverance with a semi-final single-arrow shoot-off win. Shana matched up in the final against Russian Recurve archer Bair Tsybekdorzhiev.
Three of Shana’s sets totalled just 26 points, while his Russian opponent started with a 29 which put the Bangladeshi athlete 3-1 down at the halfway.
But while Tsybekdorzhiev struggled to keep his arrows inside the red zone with strong wind blowing, Shana’s groups were tighter. Two set wins in a row reversed the advantage, and he sealed a well-deserved gold medal in a last-set draw, 6-4.
All three members of Bangladesh’s Recurve men’s team finished in the top 16 at this Asian Grand Prix, and the team finished on an impressive fifth place after losing a quarterfinal shoot-off to Russia.
